End date for Windows XP

I'm not sure which forum to post this in so I'll try here.
As long as I have a current paid antivirus and fire wall on my old computer do I really need to worry about microsofts support service packs which end in April of this year. It's a backup machine and I only want to access the Internet with it on rare occasions. I do realize in the future new programs will not run on it, but that's the case with it now.
I already have a hp with windows 8 (which I despise) laptop and a apple iPad to access information.

You probably won't have to worry. Even if your antivirus stops supporting XP there will probably be many others that do. And chances are, many new apps will work just fine for XP until probably the next decade or so.

I don't think that antivirus companies are going to drop XP support for their products anytime soon. Many critical "vertical market" devices (i.e. industry-specific) still run on XP machines, so there is still a market for XP-capable antivirus solutions-- perhaps not so lucrative as before, but a business customer is a solid revenue source.

Never say never, though. If I remember correctly, XP usage has dropped well below 50%, and hackers are going to be attacking XP with a vengeance when April rolls around. Eventually, XP will be compromised to the point where antivirus won't help. At that point, you'll need to take that machine permanently offline.

I wouldn't worry about it, and it's unlikely 3rd party companies will be dropping support for XP just yet since there's still a market for it (lots of business still using it...it gets the job done). It's just MS dropping support.

I don't see why 3rd party's would support an OS that is not supported by it's maker.

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Consider that Snow Leopard hasn't been "supported" by Apple in quite a while now, yet the majority of third party apps still do. There are still those out there that support Leopard and PowerPC macs even.

Heck, Windows 98 was still getting third party support not but a few years back. Considering the longevity of its reign and still sizable userbase XP has, I would count on it still being a very "supported" OS for quite a while yet to come.

MS is also offering extended service packages for people (well, guessing mainly businesses and any institutions still rocking XP) beyond the 'end date,' so there's going to be plenty of people still using XP for the near future.

I wouldn't trust taking it online. If you need a specific program, use it offline, or look for a newer alternative. If you're just keeping it because you don't want to throw it out, then put Linux on it - it might run better!

I, for one, wish to welcome our new zombie botnet overlords, that will take advantage of the first zero-day vulnerability to seize control of a sufficient number of machines worldwide to assume control over the Cheyenne Mountain supercomputer.

MS is also offering extended service packages for people (well, guessing mainly businesses and any institutions still rocking XP) beyond the 'end date,' so there's going to be plenty of people still using XP for the near future.

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And those extended service packages cost a pretty penny. I support a Fortune-50 company, we're in the final push of upgrading/replacing XP systems. We should be 99% Win 7 by the time the EOL for XP rolls around.

You could install Ubuntu OS for free ( depending on how old your computer is ).

Same thing for the Fortune50 company. I cannot believe any business would still run windows systems. Actually any company that cares at least a little bit about its customers security, its share holders and its own bottom line.

Save some money, install Ubuntu and stop worrying so much about virus protection software. Seriously if you bought a car and someone said it didn't come with brakes, you'd have to call this guy and he would install brakes for you... I guess if cars were always sold without brakes and we always had to trust some other guy with the install it would be normal.

I'm not saying that you will be 100% virus free using Ubuntu, absolutely not, just safer.

Plus updates every 6 months, guess how much, yep, FREE!

PS I use Macs at home and the office because they have a more refined interface. I use Ubuntu for the REALLY important stuff, like Minecraft.

You could install Ubuntu OS for free ( depending on how old your computer is ). ...

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I've been using Ubuntu for a good while, but I'm beginning to like, and perhaps even prefer, Elementary OS (Luna), which is based on Ubuntu 12.04.LTS, in part because it uses dock called Plank, which adds a nice OS X like look and feel.

I don't see why 3rd party's would support an OS that is not supported by it's maker.

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Ermm.... but an XP un-supported by Microsoft becomes instantly problematic as soon as new hacks/exploits/malware appear and Microsoft is simply unwilling to issue any more security patches to the system software.

I've been using Ubuntu for a good while, but I'm beginning to like, and perhaps even prefer, Elementary OS (Luna), which is based on Ubuntu 12.04.LTS, in part because it uses dock called Plank, which adds a nice OS X like look and feel.

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Good call! You can get the same in ubuntu via terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/docky
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install plank

You could install Ubuntu OS for free ( depending on how old your computer is ).

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However depending on his workload and requirements, Ubuntu would be a no go.

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. I cannot believe any business would still run windows systems. Actually any company that cares at least a little bit about its customers security, its share holders and its own bottom line.

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Windows is pretty much the standard in Business for lots of very good reasons, its a very backwards compatible OS, runs pretty much every 3rd party Program in Existence, its fairly cost effective and easy to deploy en mass.

Also, the security issues are long gone from Windows, Business always used Windows NT and Windows 2000 pre XP SP2 days. Which were VERY secure as well. Windows 7 and 8 are very secure as well. 99% of the old Windows 9X problems have been gone for over a decade.

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Plus updates every 6 months, guess how much, yep, FREE!

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Windows updates are free, and often come ever other week. The reason Microsoft is dropping XP support is because its been supported for well over a decade.

Depends on the amount of users. Apple ditched Snow Leopard ages ago and yet many new Apps will work just fine on it.

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Dropped support? I could have it reinstalled when I went for a hard drive reformat after a serious, but one-time, RAM glitch a few weeks ago. Surely they don't promote it. But they still have it, as they do Leopard, and even Tiger.

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Same thing for the Fortune50 company. I cannot believe any business would still run windows systems. Actually any company that cares at least a little bit about its customers security, its share holders and its own bottom line.

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Bottom line, as you say, implies being able to find enterprise-class support for deploying custom configurations in a short time. There are many Windows-certified technicians, while that kind of support is rare in the Linux world.

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Plus updates every 6 months, guess how much, yep, FREE!

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Good, but much too fast for the enterprise market. Even LTS versions last only 2 years.

( )Windows is pretty much the standard in Business for lots of very good reasons, its a very backwards compatible OS, runs pretty much every 3rd party Program in Existence, its fairly cost effective and easy to deploy en mass.

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Windows XP was backwards-compatible, but all that was broken when Vista was released.

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Also, the security issues are long gone from Windows, Business always used Windows NT and Windows 2000 pre XP SP2 days. Which were VERY secure as well. Windows 7 and 8 are very secure as well.

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Oh, and that's probably the reason why home users of these OS regularly get infected with all sort of malware you'd need a dictionary-size to hold the list of them all? Windows is secure only when put behind a very restrictive firewall and access controls, such as in enterprises.

Dropped support? I could have it reinstalled when I went for a hard drive reformat after a serious, but one-time, RAM glitch a few weeks ago. Surely they don't promote it. But they still have it, as they do Leopard, and even Tiger.

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Nope. Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard are all marked as unsupported under the support status. They are dead to Apple. XP has outlived them all.

Lion and Mountain Lion still get minor security updates, but will no doubt be ditched as soon as a Mavericks successor is released. Apple drop full support off an OS almost as soon as they release it's successor.

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